Covid-19 is an intractable disease. Nobody can see how the coronavirus that causes it migrates from one person or object to another, eventuating in a pandemic that has triggered various responses across national, state, and local frontiers.
In this piece, I am concerned with the fight against Covid-19 in Kogi State. To put it mildly, it has been pathetic.
There is virtually no responsible compliance to the so-called “social/physical distance.” People are living and carrying out their daily business as if Kogi has permanent immunity against Covid-19.
The lockdown policy was observed only during the early days of the first week; thereafter, it has been business as usual in many towns except perhaps, Lokoja, the state capital, speaking relatively.
Kogi State is bounded by nine other states and the Federal Capital Territory and yet claims to have recorded not a single Covid-19 incident. Its population density is very high per household due to inadequate housing facilities and poverty.
The average numbers of people per household could vary from 10 to 30, if not more in many cases, depending on cultural, religious and social factors. Any deep infiltration of coronavirus into the overcrowded communities is sure to be devastating in its consequences.
Governor Yahaya Bello was reported to have said that the Covid-19 issue was surrounded by lies and politics; and that “if Covid-19 comes to Kogi State, you have a governor who will combat and defeat it”. But the adage that prevention is better than cure should have been a guiding principle for the governor rather than a wait-and-see, fire brigade approach.
Though the governor was said to have set up a “Kogi Covid-19 Squadron Committee with FAREC Clinic and the Kogi State Diagnostic Centre as isolation facilities”; fortunately, it would appear that they are yet to be operational.
Nonetheless, in his interview with Seun Okinbaloye of Channels TV on Sunday April 19, Bello stated that there were no index Covid-19 cases yet in Kogi State because “we took proactive steps; we have an app;.”
He admitted that the app could not be used to test individuals but that the people could use it themselves, adding that no testing had been done as there were no test centres yet in Kogi State.
Okinbaloye asked Bello to confirm whether there was a case of coronavirus in Kogi. Bello affirmed that no one had shown any symptoms of Covid-19.
This is hard to believe, given Kogi’s location. Perhaps no case has been reported. But it does not follow that no case has surfaced.
Be that as it may, Kogi people would have been more optimistic if Bello had convinced them that adequate preparations had been made to fight Covid-19, since Kogi lies in the middle of nine or 10 states which have index cases; and particularly since people from those states and others transverse and engage in business and leisure throughout the length and breadth of the state. The cascading domino effect cannot be overlooked nor wished away.
Kogi State may not be able to hide for too long. The fight against Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria should be total. Therefore, the fight against the pandemic should be carried out according to what could be termed “the cockroach approach” whereby you do not get rid of cockroaches in the house by fumigating only one or two rooms, otherwise, the cockroaches will definitely migrate to the more hospitable rooms in the house. The entire house and compound have to be fumigated.
Unfortunately, Kogi State was left open for too long from incursions from neighbouring states that have index cases of Covid-19. The belated inter-state lockdown may be helpful to stem further incursions, but inter-connectivity along border towns and villages cannot curb unwanted infiltrations.
Kogi State has to be more responsive and assertive in joining the rest of the country in a vigorous compliance as regards the war against coronavirus especially as no state has immunity so far against the pandemic. Lessons could, no doubt, be learned from the experiences of Lagos, Ogun, and neighboring Ondo and Ekiti states in combating the virus.
The Presidential Task Force and NCDC should be invited to visit the main towns and local government headquarters of Kogi State in order to assist the state government to ascertain that the state is not left behind in the concerted national and global efforts at getting rid of the pandemic.
Kogi urgently requires well equipped test and isolation centres with appropriate kits, reagents, oxygen equipment, ventilators, protective gears for health workers who are life savers and whose lives need to be preserved. Testing has to be of high quality so as to win the confidence of the people and to ensure that the disaster at the initial test laboratory in Kano would not repeat itself.
Kogi State also requires drugs and more beds and other facilities for the ill-equipped hospitals and health centres. There is also the urgent need for rigorous sensitization at all levels, especially in various organizations and institutions, with the cooperation of traditional, religious leaders and social groups, including the use of town criers for people to comply with the stay safe at home directives, use of face masks, adherence to social/physical distance, washing of hands and testing where and when testing operations begin in the state.
Any state of the federation that is not complying with the required protocol in defeating Covid-19 pandemic is like one rotten egg that is polluting the rest, as illustrated by the “cockroach approach.”
Nigerians certainly do not wish to believe in President Trump of the USA who had wished away magically Covid-19 by the end of last month. Nigerians know the pandemic is still very much around.
In spite of the problems and socio-economic hardships and enormous challenges being confronted by the people of the state, the well-orchestrated distribution of the so-called palliatives from the federal authorities is yet to be experienced by the majority of the vulnerable population in the state. They are yearning for their hunger and suffering to be mitigated.
One is led to wonder whether there are some caring public officials that have some empathy for the people who have been waiting endlessly for the promised “palliatives” that now appear far away from their grip.
If the state government cannot provide palliatives to its people, it must ensure at least that the ones allotted by the federal government are transparently and demonstrably distributed equitably.
As the planting season has started, the state government should roll out assistance that will encourage farmers to go back to the farm in order to avert hunger and social unrest.
Incidentally, the good Samaritan Kogites who are within and outside the state, especially those in diaspora, are sending relief materials in cash and in kind through their various contacts to alleviate the hunger and suffering of the people.
This of course is a drop in the ocean relative to what is expected from the government which the people are made to hope and believe. Appreciation also goes to donors and particularly, United Bank for Africa (UBA) which gave the state over N28 million for relief.
Without the timely assistance of these sympathetic Samaritans, the situation of the people in many parts of Kogi State, would have been exacerbated.
The most urgent imperative is for the Kogi leadership to wake up from its denial syndrome and collaborate with the federal government to save the people from the pandemic when it eventually records its first index cases.
— Ambassador Jaiyeola Lewu, PH.D, Fellow (Harvard), mni, is former Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.
